Dry gas seal

Abstract

A dry gas seal for sealing the shaft of a turbomachinery, provided with means for the continuous health monitoring of the dry gas seal comprising one or more sensors adapted to measure strains and / or loads induced to the primary ring of the dry gas seal and / or strains induced to one or more of the elastic elements coupled to the primary ring and / or adapted to measure displacements of the primary ring or of an element coupled to the primary ring, for an early detection of failure of the seal, thus enabling main failures early detection capability and proactive maintenance actions.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein relate to dry gas seals to provide reliable shaft sealing on turbomachinery, particularly centrifugal compressors.[0002]A compressor is a machine which accelerates the particles of a compressible fluid, e.g., a gas, through the use of mechanical energy to, ultimately, increase the pressure of that compressible fluid. Compressors are used in a number of different applications, including operating as an initial stage of a gas turbine engine. Among the various types of compressors are the so-called centrifugal compressors, in which the mechanical energy operates on gas input to the compressor by way of centrifugal acceleration which accelerates the gas particles, e.g., by rotating a centrifugal impeller through which the gas is passing. More generally, centrifugal compressors can be said to be part of a class of machinery known as “turbo machines” or “turbo rotating machines”.[0003]Centrifugal compresso...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent allows for continuous monitoring of the health of a dry gas seal, which helps detect and prevent failures before they become major issues. This can prevent unexpected machine stops and increase production, creating opportunities for commercial tools related to increased reliability and availability of machines.

Problems solved by technology

Various types of gases are used in centrifugal compressors, some of which are toxic or dangerous to the environment and / or to workers in the plants.

Centrifugal compressors equipped with these types of dry gas sealing systems thus also require additional compressors whose function is solely to provide the sealing gas, thus making the overall system more complex.

Moreover, although the second seal 4 in the tandem configuration does provide a back-up capability, current dry gas seal systems are still not fault free, in which case they may undesirably release a certain amount of sealing gas into the atmosphere.

Dry gas seal failures are mainly due to liquid or solid particles contamination, “hang up” of primary disc causing discs contact, or axial vibration of primary disk (“swashing”).

All of them causing severe malfunctioning of the seal.

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